Palace poised to bring in goalkeeper, other signings expected to follow

Crystal Palace will soon wrap up a deal to bring goalkeeper Vicente Guaita to the club as one of a number of January signings, according to The Guardian.

The 31-year-old currently plays for Getafe CF and the Eagles faced competition from Watford.

However, Palace look poised to make the move happen and are expected to pay around Â£3.5 million for the Spanish stopper.

And The Guardian adds that he will be the first of a number of arrivals at Selhurst Park as Roy Hodgson looks to bolster his squad.

The Palace boss has moved to strengthen his goalkeeping options and Guaita represents an alternative to 38-year-old Julian Speroni and Wayne Hennessey, who is 30.

Although Hodgson has given both men opportunities between the sticks, the Palace manager said soon after arriving that he needed more options in goal.

Guaita began his career at Valencia and after a successful loan spell with Recreativo de Huelva moved to Getafe in 2014.

He has kept five clean sheets in 18 La Liga matches this season with a number of fine performances that attracted the attention of both Palace and Watford.

Guaita is out of contract in the summer and conceding just 18 goals in the league this term has helped Getafe move up to 11th in the table.

Palace will be looking for similar consistency from him as they try to build on their own solid run of recent performances.

Although they are sitting in 14th place, they are still only two points clear of the relegation zone.

As Hodgsonâ€™s Palace squad has been hit particularly hard by injuries he desperately needs to bring in more players to ensure he has the strength in depth he needs for the remainder of the season.

The club wants to urgently boost their striking options with Connor Wickham still absent through injury.

As a result, The Guardian claims Hodgson and Palace have revived his interest in Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Fiorentinaâ€™s Khouma Babacar and West Ham Unitedâ€™s Diafra Sakho as he looks for a back-up striker to Christian Benteke.

And with Scott Dann and Mamadou Sakho also unavailable, he has stepped up his hunt for defensive cover with talks reportedly underway with Lille over the transfer of their captain Ibrahim Amadou.

John Pennington is a freelance writer and self-published author. An experienced online and print journalist and editor, John has written on football, cricket, hockey and rugby as well as politics. Born in Yeovil, he lives in West Sussex, England.

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